Kerri Walsh Jennings stands 6-foot-2, but that's hard to make out when she's sitting in her throne.

Having won a beach-volleyball gold medal in each of the past three Olympics, the 35-year-old reigns supreme as the queen of her sport. And with the AVP Championships taking place in Huntington Beach this weekend, Walsh Jennings is sure to be the marquee attraction for just about every fan on the sand.

But if you're looking for something different, consider Summer Ross -- the 20-year-old who beats Kerri every time.

"They've mostly been butt-kickings," Walsh Jennings confessed.

Mostly butt-kickings indeed.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics are three years away, so you don't know or care who Ross is. Here's some advice: Take notice. If the pundits' projections are accurate, the longtime Carlsbad resident is on the brink of ripping the scepter from Walsh Jennings' hand and welding it to her palm.

Six times Ross and her partner Emily Day have played Walsh Jennings and Whitney Pavlik, and six times have won Ross and Day have won.

Ross, who played her prep volleyball at Carlsbad High, calls it blind luck. You'd have to be blind to believe that.

With cross-court kills that leave scars in the sand, the 6-2 Summer stuffs the stat sheet about as well she stuffs opposing hitters. She is also the only woman on the AVP Tour who can hand set, giving a Steve Nash quality to an otherwise Kevin Durant game.

Perhaps that's why the now retired Misty May Treanor -- Walsh Jennings' partner in all three Olympics -- recently called Ross "the future of the sport." The question is: How distant is that future?

Summer's agent, Evan Morganstein -- and we're obviously dealing with a biased perspective here -- doesn't think it's far away. Having represented a host of Olympic medalists such as Dara Torres, Nastia Liuken and Jason Lezak, Morganstein sees in Ross someone who could not only win a gold medal one day, but, if she wanted to -- buy a few gold chains as well.

Morganstein said that, in addition to hair-care and automotive endorsements, Ross has a deal pending with "one of the two biggest apparel companies out there." He added that because of the tradition of beach volleyball in Brazil, Ross' spotlight in 2016 may have a few more watts than usual should she make the Olympic team.

And while Summer's focus has always been on her expectations on the court and never the exploits off of it, knowing there's some income awaiting her must be of some comfort. She did, after all, leave college after her sophomore year.

"It was definitely risky," said Ross, who played a year of indoor volleyball at Washington before transferring to Pepperdine and winning a national championship on the sand. "And for a week it was like 'how am I going to tell the coaches?'"

She eventually told them. They weren't thrilled.

Pepperdine beach volleyball coach Nina Matthies wishes Ross all the best, but she admits that her departure left her shocked and feeling as though Summer "left us high and dry." When it came down to it, however, leaving her teammates was preferable to abandoning the opportunity of a lifetime.

Having played in Brazil, Trinidad and Switzerland among a myriad of other countries, Ross is inching toward an Olympic dream reserved for only the most gifted of athletes. And, don't worry, she's still taking classes online -- her father, Tony, wouldn't have it any other way.

In the meantime, don't expect Summer's head to swell to the size of her will. She still lives with her parents. She avoids player parties at events. And the biggest purchase she's made since going pro is buying her family a barbecue.

"I worry that we raised her to be too frugal," said Ross' mother, Kathy.

Maybe. But those who watch her workouts would say she's long been paying the price.

Walsh Jennings recently replaced Pavlik with April Ross (no relation to Summer) as her new partner, and the duo is now considered to be the best women's team on the beach. But at the rate she's going, it may not be long before Summer and whoever she's playing with is thought of as the top tandem.